Fremont, CA – July 7th, 2022 – Blackmagic Design today announced that a new international commercial for Nokian Tyres was shot using a range of Blackmagic Design cameras, including the Blackmagic URSA Mini Pro 12K digital film camera, to capture the action in, around and even underneath fast moving cars. Titled “Alive,” the spot focuses on how the tires are meant for extreme and high octane use in almost all environments, with Blackmagic Design cameras attached to vehicles as they sped over sand dunes, through mud and across snowy terrain.
“We shot across the state of Utah, all in vastly different, unique and challenging environments, capturing everything from Swing Arm City, which is a clay playground for off road motorsports, to the Uinta National Forest and Uinta Mountains during a snowstorm, and out near the Bonneville Salt Flats and Knolls Recreation Area for dirt and dune shots,” said DP Sam Sargeant. “These elements all pushed our limits in which ways we could shoot, but we just went for it and relied on the cameras to withstand the elements. They worked in the frigid cold, in extremely dusty and windy environments, in the snow, dirt, mud, on the car, in the car, and even underneath the car.”
To capture the action, Sargeant used an URSA Mini Pro 12K as the A camera primarily attached to the pursuit vehicle, with Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 6K Pro and Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 4K digital film cameras capturing shots inside the main vehicle, as well as rigged externally on the car from the tires up, and underneath tire level.
“Most automotive work focuses on one vehicle, or one set of tires, traversing the elements. With two vehicles in front of the camera, it was imperative to capture multiple angles simultaneously to save time. With our Blackmagic Design arsenal, we were able to meet this challenge head on,” explained Director Ashton Sterling Bingham. “The cameras were a game changer since we were able to pre rig each camera, allowing us to flawlessly move from station to station. We also had more peace of mind knowing we would be able to mix and match in post with greater ease.”
The Pocket Cinema Camera 6K Pro’s and Pocket Cinema Camera 4K’s miniaturized designs allowed Sargeant to easily utilize them for tight interior shots, as well as right next to the tires and underneath the vehicle, without having to sacrifice image quality. However, Sargeant credited Blackmagic RAW as being the most paramount to the shoot.
“Blackmagic RAW with the 12K sensor was especially impressive as they were designed for each other,” explained Sargeant. “The URSA Mini Pro 12K’s sensor was a joy to work with, using equal amounts of red, green and blue pixels to bring an amazing color fidelity to the image that feels so natural. With Blackmagic RAW, we got the benefits of working with RAW without the need for mega processing power in post or filling up our storage space for media. It’s incredibly efficient, has multiple flavors and provides all of the control in post that we wanted. Just having confidence in how good Blackmagic RAW really is allowed me to push the image just a little bit further and just a little bit harder.”
“DaVinci Resolve Studio perfectly integrates color capabilities with editorial and VFX features,” said Bayegan. “In each step of a pipeline, we were able to define a set of parameters and expand our degrees of freedom, such as doing cleanups, conforming and VFX rotoscoping work, all the way to coloring and finishing. Starting from the edit, we were able to online and conform the project easily and recreate the editorial effects, such as burn ins and flashes, with their proper composite modes.”
“After we started by experimenting with different LUTs, I used warpers, log controls and some Resolve FX to build the look and lock it within a few minutes, so we could all focus on the creative aspects rather than the technical ones. We were live grading this project remotely, and Resolve’s versatility allowed me to dedicate most of our time to grading rather than matching and fixing problems,” Bayegan added.
“Great gear facilitates great storytelling,” Bingham concluded. “As a director, I want to give all my mental energy to what’s in front of the camera. The best tools are the ones I think about the least because they allow me to focus on what’s on the canvas and not what’s in my hands, which is exactly what the cameras and DaVinci Resolve Studio delivered.”
Blackmagic Design creates the world’s highest quality video editing products, digital film cameras, color correctors, video converters, video monitoring, routers, live production switchers, disk recorders, waveform monitors and real time film scanners for the feature film, post production and television broadcast industries. Blackmagic Design’s DeckLink capture cards launched a revolution in quality and affordability in post production, while the company’s Emmy™ award winning DaVinci color correction products have dominated the television and film industry since 1984. Blackmagic Design continues ground breaking innovations including 6G-SDI and 12G-SDI products and stereoscopic 3D and Ultra HD workflows. Founded by world leading post production editors and engineers, Blackmagic Design has offices in the USA, UK, Japan, Singapore and Australia. For more information, please go to www.blackmagicdesign.com.